July 2nd – October 15th, 2024, 10:30am-12pm PDT/1pm-3pm EST

REGISTER HERE

Price $1,100

Price $560 for CE credits
CE Credits Offered: 28 total

Scholarship Application

This course will be composed of a series of independent lectures taught by the Chacruna Institute’s team and affiliates. It will lay out the foundation of the use of sacred plants through historical, cultural, indigenous, ‘traditional’ and contemporary lenses. We will explore topics such as shamanism in Amazonia, peyote use among the Wixárika, psilocybin use among the Mazatec, iboga in Africa, and many other cultural practices amongst other groups. We will discuss and analyze critical social issues such as globalization, tourism, cultural appropriation, commodification, patents, reciprocity, conservation, legality, ethics, sexual abuse, practitioner’s training and more. The course will create bridges between the worlds of ceremonies and psychedelic therapies. Students will learn how to incorporate this knowledge into their professional practices – either clinical or social science research, work clients or ceremonial circles – as well as their personal lives. Through multiple perspectives and the rich histories and cultures of psychedelic plant medicines, students will be able to deepen their understanding of the expanding future of psychedelic plant medicines in ways that are equitable, safe, and just, and ways we can give back to and honor the cultures from which these practices stem. The course will be taught from an anthropological viewpoint that considers different cultures and peoples worthy of respect and considers their own perspective and values.

Student Learning Objectives 

At the end of the program, participants will be better able to…

• Discuss how historical attitudes about sacred plants has influenced our contemporary understanding of psychedelics
• Critique how different interpretations of plant knowledge have reinforced power dynamics
• Describe the history of oppression of indigenous religion by European missionaries
• Analyze the etymology and intellectual history and of the term “shaman”
• Compile geographic, political, and cultural context in order to compare Wixarika peyote uses with the plant’s uses in other regions and communities
• Explain how the global circulation and consumption of Indigenous sacred plants and cultures create social and environmental impacts on endemic territories
• Describe in detail the different forms of contemporary iboga and ibogaine use
• Compare different forms of ibogaine treatment and iboga rituals regarding their management of health risks
• Apply anthropological concepts to better understand ritualized practices with psilocybin mushrooms
• Analyze certain problematic tropes of Mazatec curanderos and ceremony
• Describe the conservation status of commonly used naturally occurring psychedelics
• List efforts which are underway for preserving these medicines by indigenous people and local communities
• Explain the current legal field around psychedelics
• Discuss the contours of the religious defenses available for the use of psychedelics in the United States
• Describe how intellectual property laws have been used to both protect and to undermine the protection of Indigenous rights
• Use intellectual property laws to protect Indigenous rights
• Explain the connections between colonialism and peyotism in the United States and analyze how these connections inform current debates regarding the legalization of peyote
• Describe the difference between racial and political classifications in the United States and explain why “racial” challenges to the Native American Church’s peyote exemption have failed
• Analyze the archaeological evidence on the ritual use of psychedelics in Mesoamerica
• Compare the different codices, sculptures and artifacts regarding the ritual uses of sacred plants
• Describe the neocolonial aspects of philanthropy, Nagoya Protocol, access-and-benefit sharing, and their relevance to reciprocity and psychedelic plant medicines for local communities, practitioners, patients, business leaders, investors, conservationists and researchers
• Discuss how unequal exchange affects Indigenous territories connected to international trade, and the cultural-economic factors alienating the psychedelic community from the human and environmental costs of the status quo
• Critique how their own assumptions about gender and sexuality may play out in their conceptions about the ayahuasca plant, the dietas practiced around it, and its shamans and ritual facilitators
• Discuss the prevalence of sexual abuse within ayahuasca-using traditions and the steps being taken to mitigate this phenomenon, as well as the reasons it exists
• Discuss ethical considerations for practitioners and participants in connection with sacramental ceremonies
• Create ethical guidelines for sacred plant medicine communities
• Compare and analyze the different elements of traditional uses of sacred plant medicines versus the modern western practice of psychedelic-assisted therapy
• Explain and analyze misconceptions related to the notions of set & setting and integration often discussed within the psychedelic field

Information on Continuing Education Credits for Health Professionals

• CE credits for psychologists are provided by the Spiritual Competency Academy (SCA) which is co-sponsoring this program. The Spiritual Competency Academy is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Spiritual Competency Academy maintains responsibility for this program and its content. 
• The California Board of Behavioral Sciences accepts CE credits for LCSW, LPCC, LEP, and LMFT license renewal for programs offered by approved sponsors of CE by the American Psychological Association. 
• LCSW, LPCC, LEP, and LMFTs, and other mental health professionals from states other than California need to check with their state licensing board as to whether or not they accept programs offered by approved sponsors of CE by the American Psychological Association. 
• SCA is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN Provider CEP16887) for licensed nurses in California. RNs must retain their certificate of attendance for 4 years after the course concludes. 
• For questions about receiving your Certificate of Attendance, contact [email protected] 

For questions about CE, contact Spiritual Competency Academy at [email protected].

CE Credit Requirements

• Student must be in attendance with their camera on for the entirety of the class session 
• Student must be actively participating in the class session (asking questions, contributing to discussion, etc.) 
• Student must fill out an evaluation and assessment form at the end of the course, which will be provided by Chacruna 
• Collective CE credits will be awarded at the end of the course given that all of the above requirements are met 

*please note that you must purchase a ticket for CE credits on Eventbrite in order to receive CE credits 

*please note that if you miss a class, you will not be awarded any CE credits and you cannot be refunded for CE credits

*please note that the first and last class do not count towards CE credits

Chacruna Certificate Requirements

At the end of the course, students will have the option to receive a certificate from Chacruna for the completion of this course. In order to receive this certificate, students must complete one of the following options: 

A. Submit a final individual paper of 1,800 to 2,000 words, following Chacruna’s Chronicles Guidelines (the best papers will be selected to be published on the Chacruna site) *please note that the 2,000 word count should include footnotes and references; papers that go beyond 2,000 total words will not be accepted.

B. Submit a final group paper consisting of 2,000 words per person (i.e. if there are two people writing the paper, it should be a total of 4,000 words; if there are three people writing the paper, it should be a total of 6,000 words) *please note that the 2,000 word count per person should include footnotes and references; papers that go beyond 2,000 total words will not be accepted.

C. Submit a paper with internal reflection of what you have learned throughout this course 

D. Pitch another specific proposal to submit (i.e. mini-documentary, video lecture, creation of a podcast.) 

E. Students will have the option to do an art project related to the contents of the course 

F. Students will have the option to conduct a “Family History.” This would consist of the student interviewing their family members to contextualize their life and experience, to understand their roots, and also talk about their local community/ lands/ social environment where they came from and/or are located 

*Students will also have the option to opt out of receiving the certificate.

* The project submitted must be unique and created specifically for the course; you cannot submit a project that you created previously or submitted elsewhere.

Class Recordings and Lecture Slides Policy

Recordings of the lectures will be sent to the students a week before the class is scheduled to take place.

Lecture slides from the classes may be provided to the students at each professor’s discretion. We encourage everyone to come to each class in-person and on time as we cannot guarantee providing these resources in all circumstances.

You can find more information to Frequently Asked Questions here.

Course Structure

• Students will watch the lecture on their own time
• There will be a live 1.5 hour discussion on Zoom with the professor the following week

Refund Policy click here

Classes

Click on the class to read the description

Professors

Chris Byrnes is a registered patent attorney at Calyx Law with particular interests in ethical IP licensing and IP commoning. After graduating with degrees in Physics and Religion from Denison University, he worked with academic institutions and human rights initiatives in South India and began doing art-based interfaith dialogues in the United States. He then earned a Master’s of Theological Studies in Religion, Ethics, and Politics from Harvard Divinity School, and began organizing interfaith communities to improve access to medicines and environmental sustainability. Through this work, he developed a deep interest in the politics and power of intellectual property and earned a JD from Georgetown University. After years in private practice doing patent litigation and IP risk management, Chris co-founded Corporate Accountability Lab and Performing Pro Arts Commons to conduct experiments with IP to protect human rights and the environment across global supply chains, working with artists and activists from around the world. He is an adjunct professor at IE University and a member of Chacruna’s Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants. He is based in La Pedriza, Spain.

Clancy Cavnar has a doctorate in clinical psychology (Psy.D.) from John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, CA. She currently works in private practice in San Francisco, and is Co-Founder and a member of the Board of Directors of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. She is also a research associate of the Interdisciplinary Group for Psychoactive Studies (NEIP). She combines an eclectic array of interests and activities as clinical psychologist, artist, and researcher. She has a master of fine arts in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute, a master’s in counseling from San Francisco State University, and she completed the Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). She is author and co-author of articles in several peer-reviewed journals and co-editor, with Beatriz Caiuby Labate, of ten books. For more information see: http://www.drclancycavnar.com

Anya Ermakova has a motley background and broad research interests combining nature conservation, ethnobotany, neuroscience and psychiatry, interweaving and connecting these diverse paths through psychedelic science. Anya worked at the forefront of psychedelic research as a science officer at the Beckley Foundation, and has provided psychedelic welfare and harm reduction services with PsycareUK and Zendo. Deep love for nature and wildlife has motivated Anya to study biology at the University of Edinburgh, while a quest to understand altered states of consciousness has prompted her to specialise in neuroscience and later continued during her PhD in psychiatry at Cambridge, where she investigated the origins of psychosis. She then worked for the NHS, developing and trialing a new psychosocial intervention for psychosis. After a brief stint as a clinical trial manager, she had decided to pursue her passion for nature, by studying Conservation Science at Imperial College London, where she researched peyote ecology in Texas, USA. Anya is working as a research consultant in London, is a member of the Council for the Protection of the Sacred Plants at Chacruna, and a board member of the Cactus Conservation Institute.

Kevin Feeney, PhD, JD, is a cultural anthropologist and lawyer currently working as a Program Director and Instructor in Interdisciplinary Studies – Social Sciences at Central Washington University. His primary research interests include examining legal and regulatory issues surrounding the religious and cultural use of psychoactive substances, with an emphasis on peyote and ayahuasca, and exploring modern and traditional uses of Amanita muscaria, with a specific focus on medicinal use and preparation practices. His research has been published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Human Organization, and Curare, among other books and journals. He is a current board member of Cactus Conservation Institute, which is dedicated to the study and preservation of vulnerable cacti and is a member of Chacruna’s Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants, and recently joined the Board of Advisors for Psyched Wellness, a Canadian health supplements company emphasizing medicinal mushrooms.

Osiris Sinuhé González Romero earned his PhD at Leiden University, in the Faculty of Archaeology-Heritage ofIndigenous Peoples. His dissertation “Tlamatiliztli: the wisdom of the Nahua people. Intercultural philosophy and right to land”, has been published by Leiden University Press. He was awarded the Coimbra Group Scholarship for Young Professors and Researchers from Latin American Universities in 2015. He has been involved in psychedelic research since 2008. He is part of the Chacruna Chronicles editorial team. He is also founder member of Via Synapsis, and academic society focused on the organization of the University Congress of Psychoactive Substances hosted by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Faculty of Philosophy since 2014. Currently he is a Postdoctoral researcher on cognitive freedom and psychedelic humanities at the University of Saskatchewan. He has been working on the book, New Essays on History and Philosophy of Psychedelics. His research interests include: philosophy of psychedelics, history of medicine, indigenous knowledge, decolonial theory, political philosophy, heritage studies, and aesthetics.

Bruno Ramos Gomes is a Brazilian psychologist, with Master’s degree in Public Health at the School of Public Health-USP, and a PhD in Public Health at University of Campinas, Brazil. In his masters, he researched the use of ayahuasca in the recovery of homeless people and drug users. In his PhD, he did a 12 month qualitative follow-up of patients treating drug dependence and depression. He has been helping patients integrate ibogaine and ayahuasca in their therapeutic processes for the last 12 years. He is a member of the ICARO (Interdisciplinary Cooperation for Ayahuasca Research and Outreach)-UNICAMP and Chacruna’s Ayahuasca Community Committee.

Allison Hoots is an attorney who has been working with religious communities using sacred plant medicines for over five years, advising churches on incorporation, operation, and legal compliance in the religious use of plant medicines and consistent with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. She is a Of Counsel with Plant Medicine Law Group LLP; a member of Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines’ Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants and is the lead author of Chacruna’s Guide to RFRA and Best Practices for Psychedelic Plant Medicine Churches; she on the Board of Directors of the Sacred Plant Alliance; and she is on the Board of Trustees and officer of a nonprofit church that uses plant medicine in prayer.

Dr. Beatriz Caiuby Labate (Bia Labate) is a queer Brazilian anthropologist based in San Francisco. She has a Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil. Her main areas of interest are the study of plant medicines, drug policy, shamanism, ritual, religion, and social justice. She is Executive Director of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines and serves as Public Education and Culture Specialist at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). She is also Visiting Scholar at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Additionally, she is Advisor for the Veteran Mental Health Leadership Coalition and the Soltara Healing Center. Dr. Labate is a co-founder of the Interdisciplinary Group for Psychoactive Studies (NEIP) in Brazil and editor of its site. She is author, co-author, and co-editor of twenty-eight books, two special-edition journals, and several peer-reviewed articles (https://bialabate.net).

Joseph Mays, MSc, received his Master’s in Ethnobotany from the University of Kent upon researching responses to globalization by indigenous Yanesha of central Peru. After graduating with biology and anthropology degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University, he conducted an ethnobotanical survey in the Ecuadorian cloud forest and published a medicinal plant guide for the Jama-Coaque Ecological Reserve. His conservation work emphasizes how cultural-conditioning influences approaches to biocultural sustainability. Joseph is Program Director of Chacruna’s Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative of the Americas, where he conducts research and builds connections with small Indigenous communities throughout the Americas to support Chacruna’s mission of increasing cultural reciprocity in the psychedelic space.

Sean McAllister is one of nation’s leading drug policy reform lawyers. Sean has pioneered legal and business strategies for entrepreneurs in the cannabis, hemp, recycling, and psychedelics spaces. His work in the psychedelic space has included advising religious organizations on their rights to use psychedelics as sacraments, seeking DEA licensure for a public company manufacturing psilocybin for clinical trials, helping psychedelic assisted therapists understand the risks of these activities, advising on what is legal in decriminalized cities, and understanding new state regulatory laws like Oregon’s Measure 109. Sean’s work on drug policy reform goes back 25 years, starting on the Colorado Prison Moratorium Campaign in the mid-1990s. From 2004-2012, Sean served the chair of the Board of Directors of the organization that ran the Colorado recreational marijuana legalization campaign that voters ultimately approved. Sean has also worked on broader drug policy reform issues as a member of the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice. Sean is an appointed member of the Denver Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review Panel, which was the first ballot initiative in the U.S. decriminalize the possession, cultivation and storage of psilocybin. Sean has been a legal advisor to other cities and states considering psychedelic decriminalization efforts, including the Decriminalize California campaign in 2020 and Decriminalize Seattle in 2021. Sean is Chair of Board of Directors of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, and member of Chacruna’s Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants.

Dr. Nidia A. Olvera Hernández is a historian and anthropologist. She has a Ph.D. in modern and contemporary history at the Mora Institute in Mexico City. Nidia earned a bachelor’s degree in ethnohistory from the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH) and a masters in social anthropology from the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS), in Mexico City. Her main areas of interest are the old and modern history of psychoactive substances and drug policy. She is co-editor with Bia Labate of the book Plantas Sagradas en México: tradición, religión y ritualidad [Sacred Plants in Mexico: Tradition, Religion and Ritual, COLSAN/Chacruna Institute 2023] and author of several peer-reviewed articles. She has worked like a Project Coordinator at the United Nations on drug treatment program, has experience working on social research consultancies and like professor at the Autonomous University of Mexico City and ENAH. Currently she is Associate Director at Chacruna Lationoamérica in Mexico.

Graham Pechenik is a registered patent attorney, and the founder of Calyx Law. He has a BS from UC San Diego, where he chose his Cognitive Neuroscience and Biochemistry majors after his first psychedelic experiences inspired deep curiosity about the bases for changes in consciousness, and a JD from NYU, where he initially pursued interests in bioethics and cognitive liberty. After a decade at large law firms representing companies in the agricultural, chemical, pharmaceutical, biotech, and technology industries, including litigating patents at trial and on appeal, Graham started Calyx Law to work with cannabis and psychedelics ventures. Graham is also editor-at-large of Psilocybin Alpha, where he writes about psychedelics IP, provides data for patent trackers, and helps maintain a psychedelics legalization and decriminalization tracker, and he is a member of Chacruna’s Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants. He was raised in Oakland, CA, and currently lives in San Francisco.

Glenn H. Shepard Jr. is an ethnobotanist, medical anthropologist and filmmaker who has worked with diverse indigenous peoples of Latin America, especially in Amazonia. He earned his undergraduate degree at Princeton University and completed his doctorate in Medical Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley in 1999. His research interests include ethnobotany, medical anthropology, shamanism, sustainable resource management, visual anthropology and the territorial rights of isolated peoples. Publications include research articles, commentary and reviews in Nature (1998, 2009), Science (2003), Science Advances (2016), American Anthropologist (2004, 2012), Economic Botany (2008, 2011), Conservation Biology (2007), PLoS One (2015, 2015) and the New York Review of Books (2014, 2015, 2019). His work in the Amazon has been featured in news stories in National Geographic (2016) The New Yorker (2016, 2019) and the Financial Times (2019). He has participated in the production of several films, including the Emmy-Award-winning documentary, Spirits of the Rainforest, as well as Zapatista Memories, which debuted in 2016 at the Margaret Mead Film Festival. He is a tenured staff researcher in the Human Sciences Division at the Goeldi Museum in Belém, Brazil, where he curated the ethnographic collections from 2009-2013 and co-chaired the Division from 2014-2016, and currently sits on the Advisory Board of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. He blogs at Notes from the Ethnoground (http://ethnoground.blogspot.com/).

Nicholas Spiers is a queer anthropologist and documentary filmmaker. He has a Master’s degree in visual anthropology from the University of Barcelona and is interested in the sensory experience of audiovisual mediums. He has lived for several years in Mexico doing fieldwork in the Sierra Mazateca, and is currently based in Portugal. He is Chacruna’s research coordinator, creating content incorporating different cultural perspectives and disciplines to approach challenging discussions in the psychedelic community. He is the lead author on Chacruna’s Indigenous Psilocybin Mushroom Practices: An Annotated Bibliography (Journal of Psychedelic Studies, in 2024). He also produces compelling videos and multimedia materials. With Bia Labate he co-directed the documentary web series The Peyote Files, and created the educational video Chacruna Debunks 6 Racist Myths from the Psychedelic Community. He has created an award-winning series about the psychoactive plant Salvia divinorum. He co-founded Agua de Rayo, a non-profit civil organization based in Mexico’s Sierra Mazateca, which is invested in visual ethnography and community projects and which also has an interest in Mazatec psychoactive plant use.

Lígia Duque Platero is Chacruna’s Education Program Associate. She is a queer, cisgender Brazilian woman. She has an interdisciplinary background in history, anthropology and Latin American studies. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history (2005) and a history teacher training qualification (2006) from the University of São Paulo (USP), in Brazil. She has a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM – 2012) in Mexico City, addressing public policies in relation to Indigenous peoples and Indigenous education in Brazil and Mexico from the 1940s-1970s. She has a doctorate in humanities, with an emphasis on cultural anthropology (2018), from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), in Brazil. Her PhD looked at the cultural transformations and exchanges amid the alliance between the Yawanawá Indigenous people and an urban church of Santo Daime. Her main research focus areas are: ayahuasca, Santo Daime, sacred plants, shamanic tourism, Yawanawá (Pano) people, Indigenous policies and human rights in Brazil and Mexico. She is a research associate at the Interdisciplinary Group for Psychoactive Studies (NEIP) and at the Laboratory for the History of Religious Experiences (UFRJ/IFCS) in Brazil.

Dr. Glauber Loures de Assis is Associate Director of Chacruna Latinoamérica in Brazil. He has a Ph.D in sociology from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and is Research Associate at the Interdisciplinary Group for Psychoactive Studies (NEIP) in Brazil. His main interests include the ayahuasca religions, new religious movements, the internationalization of the Brazilian religions, drug use in contemporary society, and psychedelic parenthood. He is the author of numerous articles and book chapters, and the co-editor of the book Women and Psychedelics: Uncovering Invisible Voices (Synergetic Press/Chacruna Institute, in press). Glauber is also an ayahuasca practitioner with 15 years of experience. He has built this practice in dialogue with his local Brazilian ayahuasca community and with the blessings of Indigenous elders and activists in Brazil. He is also the leader of Jornadas de Kura, a plant medicine center in Brazil that promotes a bridge between the ceremonial use of sacred plants and psychedelic science. He is father to 3 children and lives with his wife Jacqueline Rodrigues in Santa Luzia, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

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